FIRST CHARTER DRAFT

We seek a process through which the Demands Working Group can help the NYCGA frame grievances, express goals, and envision possibilities. We aim to assemble the Open Source contributions as well as the Demands articulated by other Occupations into policy points that can be ratified in the NYCGA and possibly embraced as a movement. We support using modified consensus, embrace a non-aligned political perspective, and work in tandem with all other Working Groups to put these ideas into language that everyone can support.

Our mission is to collect, to articulate, and to suggest implementation for the Demands of the OWS Movement and the people of New York direct to the Government of the United States of America.

Our mandate is to ensure that the broadest consultation occurs both within the movement and with the general public as to what Demands best respond to the grievances brought before the NYCGA.

It is not our intention to speak for the OWS Movement, nor do we claim to speak for other autonomous Occupations.

It is our objective to frame the grievances, goals, visions and collective desires of our Movement in a way that the broadest segments of the New York population can stand in solidarity with our struggle.

It is our also our objective to express the Demands generated by the people of our City for whom activism & political participation is a luxury they cannot currently afford.

We are of the belief that a Movement without Demands cannot enlist women and men who are starving, losing their homes, and literally dying of poverty in the here right now. A Movement without Demands is easier to co-opt and eventually easier to ignore.

The Demands Working Group is composed of a diverse range of political perspectives ranging from Anarchist to Republican, Socialist to Democrat, Labor to Ethnic-Nationalist and also many non-aligned to an ideology or party. If we are to enlist the 99% we must be empowered to attempt articulation of their Demands.

For believe us, and we can show you: in the Ghettos, the Barrios, in the factories, on the farms, in trailer parks, projects, slums and even white washed suburbs; the people are asking what we want.

They are more specifically asking can this movement win political victories and force the establishment to concede.

The nature of our Demands seeks to demonstrate the unreasonableness of the system itself. We wish to tell the people what the movement stands for, and enlist them in resistance when our Demands are categorically ignored.

ARTICLE 1:

SCOPE

1. Discuss and research the history of demands in social movements throughout time.

2. Compile a list of the different uses and goals of demands.

3. Formulate multiple methods for making demands.

4. Coordinate with other working groups to conduct outreach on demands issues with the intent of collecting data on possible demands.

5. Produce and provide information to contribute to demands proposals to be brought before the General Assembly in the future.

6. Outsource the specific implementation details of ratified demands to appropriate groups within the movement.

ARTICLE 2:

BILAWS

Demands Working Group operates on ¾ modified consensus. Sub-Groups work on 9/10.

Demands Working Group ideally meets for only two hours at a time, twice a week.

Demands Working Group is subdivided into SUB-GROUPS, specialized committees based around functionality.

SUB-GROUPS are further divided into 3-5 person Working Units on specific tasks per diem.

Demands Working Group consists of Sub-Groups in four basic concentrations: